Ava, MO
Ava, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Ava's 1,887 buildings earn a 78th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Ava at the 81st percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Ava's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Ava (68.7% of 1,887 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 31.3% sit in the Direct zone.
Ava against the rest of the country
Compare Ava's two percentiles: 95th within Missouri, only 78th nationally — a gap of 17 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ava ranks 6,999 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,801 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 57 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ava
Ava's 78th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
Ava's 68.7% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,887 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ava. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Ava, see the exposure-zones guide.